A little about us . . .

We are Mark and Laurie Ritchel. Happy to meet you!

We bought our Playa del Carmen vacation home in 2008 and it has been a dream come true for us to own our place in this special corner of Mexico! We chose Playa because of its close proximity to everything the Riviera Maya has to offer: beautiful beaches, parasailing, catamaran trips, Mayan ruins, snorkeling in the cenotes, caves and reefs, shopping, visiting the colonial cities of Merida and Valladolid, swimming with turtles and much, much more!! We feel that we will never run out of exciting and interesting things to do all around us and we just can't absorb enough of the warm Mexican culture!!

When we first saw our condo advertised for sale, Laurie immediately flew down to Playa and made an offer right then and there! She fell in love first with the oversized pool and the spaciousness of the condo, and especially the unbeatable location. There are so few condominium complexes in Playacar that are close enough to walk to everything – she knew we had found our perfect vacation home.

We spent the next 2 years making improvements to the condo, both for us and for our guests to enjoy. It was quite an adventure upgrading to a King size bed in the master bedroom, buying furniture completely in Spanish (something that we didn’t speak very much of at the time)! We managed to purchase a washer/dryer, get a gas line installed, get satellite TV hooked up, bought paint and had every room in the condo repainted all using our pathetic broken Spanglish. We are not sure what many of the locals thought of us as we attempted to plea our objectives, but we are sure there were a few chuckles by many along the way! We have loved every minute (almost) of making Casa de Sueno our home away from home. (You can read more about our adventures purchasing our home in Playa in several of our blog posts - Pursuing the Dream and Before and After Pics.)

We are very active owners, visiting often throughout the year, and always adding fun and helpful amenities to our home. When we are not vacationing in Playa, we reside in Texas. One of our favorite ways to spend our time is helping our guests plan their vacations to Playa del Carmen. Laurie is normally the first one to respond to your email inquiries, but we both enjoy explaining things to new visitors and making new friends. We’d love to help you make the most of your visit. Come stay with us!

Mark and Laurie Ritchel

We'd love to hear from you. You can contact us by completing the inquiry form under the Rates and Reservations tab, by email to Laurie@escapetoplaya.com or by phone to Laurie's cell in the U.S., (409) 790-4307.